Jafet Uutoni and Nataneal Kamati won their first round fights on Monday to progress to the quarterfinals of the 49kg and 52kg categories respectively at the All Africa Games in Maputo.
Uutoni recorded a comprehensive 24-6 victory against Akeen Adebamiji of Nigeria in their 49kg light flyweight fight.
Uutoni came out firing in search of a knockout punch but he often missed with wild swinging punches. Towards the end of the first round, he caught Adebamiji with a sharp left hook and the referee gave the Nigerian a standing eight count.
Uutoni led 7-2 at the end of the first round and stretched his lead to 18-4 at the end of the second before going on to seal a comprehensive victory.
Although Uutoni won comfortably enough, he also missed a lot with some wild, swinging punches and coach Mike Serafie afterwards said that he had to calm him down.
“Uutoni wanted to knock his opponent out but I advised him to focus and not to use his maximum power, but rather to use his speed and technical power,” he said.
Kamati beats Ngema
Nataneal Kamati reached the quarterfinals of the 52kg flyweight category after a comfortable 22-13 points victory against Yabata Ngema of DRC.
Kamati started off slowly, seizing his opponent up, while Ngema was the early aggressor. But Kamati displayed fine technical skills and ring craft, moving quickly out of trouble and catching Ngema on the counterattack and by the end of the first round he was leading 6-4.
Kamati picked up the tempo in the second round, pushing forward with the jab and landing some sharp combinations to take a 15-8 lead by the end of the second round.
In the final round Ngema swung wildly, looking for a knockout punch, but Kamati remained elusive and continued to rake in the points with his jab and quick combinations, to win the fight comfortably.
Namibia’s Boxing Team Manager Nicky Natangwe said it was a good performance by Kamati.
“I was happy with his performance. For the first round it was good and it can just get better because he is still adapting to the conditions,” he said.
Uutoni and Kamati now join Mejandjae Kasuto and Titus Iyambo in the quarterfinals and Serafie reckons they all stand a chance to go further.
“I have seen their opponents fighting, and I am sure that we will have at least three boxers in the finals, if not more.”
Delie 5th in 200m freestyle final
Namibian swimmer Quinton Delie finished fifth in the men’s 200m freestyle final in a time of 1:57,53, which was just outside his national record of 1:57,47.
The race was won by Ahmed Matlouthi of Tunisia in 1:48,95, while South Africans Darian Townsend came second in 1:49,04 and Jean Basson third in 1:51,06.
Earlier in the day Delie came fifth overall in the heats in a time of 1:57,80.